COVID-19 played a huge role in my first year of highschool. I can safely say most of us assumed that Corona would get better with each passing day, and everytime we were told we would be returning to regular school we'd hoped it would be for good. Unfortunately, we ended the year on a random Friday on Google Meet. As much as I would have liked for us to have an 'International Day' or for the performing arts department to showcase what they'd be working on all year in front of a live audience, that didn't happen.

This is not to say I'm not grateful for all the time I was able to spend with my friends when we were back at school, because we didn't miss out completely. The journalism club was still able to publish their very first paper before the start of our third round of online school + the theatre club managed to host Dance Night 2021 all on our own.

As an individual, I was able to build friendships with people I never realized I had so much in common with, as well as boost my public speaking skills in LA as most of our regular class consisted of discussions and debate.